Warpaint: The other side of Bob

Murphy: 'I love playing with this group'Bob Murphy and Luke Beveridge reflect on Bob's time at The Kennel as we approach his 300th game this Saturday.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - APRIL 14: Robert Murphy of the Bulldogs calls to his teammates to slow down play during the 2017 AFL round 04 match between the North Melbourne Kangaroos and the Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium on April 14, 2017 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Adam Trafford/AFL Media)

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As Bob Murphy prepares to play his 300th game of AFL football this weekend against Brisbane, the archives have been raided, as every photo ever taken of the skipper in his early days of AFL footy have been given an airing.

And we’ve also heard about how the 68kg first year player was (allegedly) unable to do a chin-up.

“I don’t think he could do a chin up, to be honest,” fellow 300-gamer Brad Johnson told Fox Footy’s League teams about his first impressions of the young Murphy.

“It was either him or Gia (Daniel Giansiracusa), I can’t remember.”

But jokes aside, Johnson revealed something else about Murphy that perhaps only his peers would be aware of: his genuine strength.

“Let me tell you now, Bob is one of the strongest men you can come up against,” Johnson said.

“He’s really wiry, but his core strength ... you can’t move him off the line. He was very difficult to do one-on-one work with, Murph.’

Coach Luke Beveridge also talked of a side of Murphy that people outside of the Bulldogs inner sanctum may not be aware, the side that his teammates see a couple of minutes before the bounce.

“There is a grunt to him that you probably don’t see.

There is that ‘put on the warpaint’ attitude on game day that most of you don’t see, that most of his teammates do, and we do, and that we do, and I’m sure he’ll put on the war paint this week.